Remus Lupin's Marauders
by alex435
Summary: This is a Harry Potter prequel story about The Marauders, Remus Lupin, James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew. It starts in there 2nd year at Hogwarts, before they know that Remus is a werewolf and will follow the group through their years at Hogwarts.
1. Chapter 1

Under the light of the rising sun after a full moon, a twelve-year-old boy could be seen staggering out of what was now nicknamed "The Shrieking Shack." The boy was disheveled, wearing worn and ripped clothes that hung off of his thin, ragged frame. His light brown hair, which gave the impression that its color could fade in an instant, was matted down with sweat on his forehead. His face was marred with scratches and bruises, much like the rest of his body. His eyes were tired and they reflected a pain that is not so common to find in most twelve-year-old boys. He lifted his weary gaze from the snow-dusted ground and saw Madame Pomfrey rushing over to him. She always came on these mornings. She supposed that some people might be repulsed by his situation, but to her, he was just a boy. A boy, who was sick, scared and needed to be helped. She reached him just as he collapsed onto the cold ground, too exhausted to go any further. She picked him up with the help of a levitating charm and turned around back towards the castle. She looked down at his young yet dreadfully solemn face, and brushed his dirty hair off of his forehead, only revealing more injuries from the previous night.

"Oh Remus, you poor thing." She whispered before she quickened her pace. The sooner she got him inside, the better.

Remus slowly opened his eyes, straining against the harsh light of the infirmary. He sat up gingerly and looked down at himself to survey the damage of the prior night. All of the major wounds had been healed leaving only a faint soreness. He touched his face and only felt a couple scratches and bruises. He felt enormous gratitude for Madame Pomfrey and then collapsed back down onto the bed in exhaustion. This was usual, he wouldn't feel completely well again for a few days, but this didn't matter to Remus. He was always happiest on the days after his transition. On these days, the looming pressure of the next full moon felt far away, and as long as he didn't dwell on the last full moon, he felt that he could be normal for once. He closed his eyes just as he heard footsteps and voices approaching the infirmary door.

"A-are you sure about this? I mean skipping class?" said one of the voices outside, nervously.

" C'mon Peter! We're not gonna get caught, and if we did, what could they really do to us?" Another voice exclaimed loudly without any attempt at discretion, almost as if he was daring someone to find and challenge them.

"Sirius, sh!" Peter whispered frantically. Remus smiled as he could just picture Peter flailing his arms in a panic trying to rein Sirius in as Sirius just continued whatever it is he was doing with an arrogant smile. As the footsteps neared the entrance, he heard the last voice, James.

"Alright, quiet down guys. You're going to give Peter a stroke. And don't worry; we're just missing potions. No big deal." The towering doors then banged open as James Potter casually walked in, followed by Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. Remus sat up again and smiled at them. He still couldn't quite believe that he had made actual friends. _They won't be so friendly once they find out what you are, _added a doubting voice in Remus' head that he did his best to ignore. Remus' friends always visited him when he was in the infirmary and while Remus was beyond grateful of this, in fact he was quite astonished that they made the effort every time, he hated lying to them time and time again. They were all under the impression that Remus had some kind of illness that flared up once in a while. He couldn't help but wonder how long this lie would last.

"Remus." James nodded to him fondly as he slouched against the wall next to his bed.

"Still alive then, mate?" Sirius joked before jumping on to the foot of the bed and making himself comfortable.

"It appears so." Remus responded, smiling at Sirius and attempting to wretch his foot out of where Sirius had landed on top of it. Peter stood awkwardly next to the nightstand and looked down worriedly at Remus. Remus had assured the three of them that his "illness" was in no way life threatening, but for some reason Peter had never believed him and always seemed to be afraid that Remus was going to drop dead every time he wound up in the infirmary. Peter opened his mouth to say something but Remus cut him off with an exasperated smile,

"Before you ask Peter; no I am not dying, nor will I be dying in the foreseeable future. So stop looking so scared please." Peter smiled back apologetically and plopped down on the floor. Remus looked around warmly at his group of visitors.

"So, skipping potions eh?" He said with a grin, " Whose idea was that?" He looked expectantly at Sirius. Sirius leaned back and raised his arms in defense.

"Don't look at me. This was all James," He replied with mock severity as James laughed in the background. "I would _never _even dream of skipping a class"

"Oh right, of course you wouldn't, my _sincerest _apologies. " Remus replied sarcastically. Sirius pretended to look wounded by his comment, when James said

"Come now, we all know who coerced us into breaking one of our dear school rules. It was Peter, of course!" The whole group, even Peter, started laughing at the absurdity of the statement and the longer they laughed, the more riotous they became. Eventually the sound alerted Madame Pomfrey to their presence. She bustled into the room and shouted disapprovingly,

"Pettigrew, Potter, Black! Remus needs rest and if I'm not mistaken, you three should be in potions at this moment!"

"We just wanted to make sure our friend here was alright, we were—"

"Oh spare me, Mr. Potter." Madame Pomfrey said sharply as she ushered them out of the room. "Just get to class. That means immediately Mr. Black!" She said, anticipating the fact that he might just wander the halls for the remainder of the class. As they left, they turned around and waved back to Remus encouragingly one last time, before the heavy doors banged shut leaving them on the other side and Remus alone once more.


	2. Chapter 2

Remus slowly made his way towards the great hall, trying to hide his limp even though there was no one around. He had been released from the infirmary and lunch had just started. Madame Pomfrey had tried to convince him to stay the rest of the day but Remus insisted on getting back to routine as soon as possible.

When he reached the great hall, he opened the door just enough to slip through the crack. He paused and looked around the vast hall filled with hundreds of students eating, talking, and laughing. Once he saw his friends sitting in their usual spot at the end of the Gryffindor table, farthest away from the teachers, he shuffled over to them with his head down, hoping that no one would notice his late entrance. He sat down next to Peter and across from James and Sirius, smiling at them before helping himself to the great expanse of food. Remus ate a lot. More than anyone he knew, especially the week after a full moon. James, who was in the middle of animatedly telling a story smiled back at Remus without pausing.

"-so, I had just spotted Snivelus, and when I was sneaking up behind him, I saw her. She was the most amazing looking girl I've ever seen and-" Sirius interrupted with,

"Wait, a girl like this, with Snivelus? C'mon James!"

"I know, I know," James replied, nodding his head enthusiastically, "I don't get it either." He leaned back into his chair with a look of disbelief.

"I'll believe it when I see it," Sirius said, stretching his arms in the air.

"No, I was there Sirius! James is right!" Peter chimed in eagerly

"Ah, but Peter, you could be charmed be any girl with a beating heart," Sirius joked.

"Whatever," Peter said and he went back to eating. Peter was always the slowest eater, taking small rat-like bites.

"You're talking about Lily Evans," Remus said after swallowing a gigantic bite of food.

"How do you know?" Sirius exclaimed.

"She's Severus' best friend. She helped me with my potions homework the other night," Remus shrugged.

"Alright then, what does she look like?" Sirius questioned with good natured suspicion. Remus paused and James looked at him expectantly,

"Oh, um well, she's, she's uh fine. Yeah, fine, I guess." Remus answered hesitantly, blushing deep red and turning his attention back to his food. Sirius, oblivious to Remus' embarrassment, clapped James on the back and laughed triumphantly while James smiled and eyed Remus knowingly.

The conversation lulled as James and Sirius went in for seconds and Remus for thirds. When they were almost done eating, Peter suddenly began rummaging through his bag.

"Remus," he said, "I got you you're homework from Potions and Herbology." He handed Remus a stack of papers.

"Thanks, Peter." Remus replied, putting the contents in his own bag.

"Hey!" Sirius cried. "Why didn't you get _my_ Potions homework?" It turned out that Sirius had in fact proved Madame Pomfrey's suspicions and skipped the remainder of the potions class.

"Because," Peter huffed," you weren't supposed to skip. Remus was _ill._" He leaned in as he said the last word, pronouncing it like just saying the word could make Remus drop dead at that very moment.

"Nah," Sirius replied, shaking his head and laughing. "I think you just like him better, eh mate?" Peter was about to reply but James cut him off and stood up.

"C'mon guys, Mcgonagall will have our heads if we don't get to transfiguration on time." The rest of the boys followed suits and James led them out of the great hall.


	3. Chapter 3

p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; background-color: #ededed;"They filed into the Transfiguration room one by one. When they passed the desk at the front of the room, they each nodded respectfully at the stern-looking cat sitting on top of it. They made their way down the aisle to their desks in the back of the room. Sirius and James sat at one desk and Remus and Peter sat at the desk directly next to theirs. Remus and Peter chatted quietly, waiting for class to begin. Next to them though, Sirius hurriedly copied down James' homework that was due practically at any moment. Remus didn't understand it. He knew that Sirius was very bright, he had seen it on many occasions, yet when it came to school, Sirius was terrible. Copying James' homework had become a usual occurrence, although Sirius always asked to use Remus' first. Remus, even though he knew that Sirius was asking out of laziness rather than confusion, always replied with the same "Sirius, if you don't understand it, I'll just help you with it instead." At that point, Sirius would go to James who would just hand Sirius the completed homework for him to copy, if in fact James had completed it. James wasn't perfect either. /p  
p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; background-color: #ededed;" Once the last empty chair in the classroom had been filled, the cat on top of the desk sprang off of it and turned into an equally stern-looking women wearing green robes with her hair tied in a tight bun upon her head. As usual, the class gave Professor Mcgonagall's transformation a round of applause. Sirius and James were particularly enthusiastic. They both found the concept of animagi fascinating and they routinely badgered Mcgonagall about it. Remus on the other hand, could't imagine wanting to spend more time as an animal nor anyone wanting to be an animal willingly at all. Although, he supposed it had to be different. Mcgonagall was still herself when she was a cat, whereas Remus lost everything he was when the full moon came and the wolf took control, leaving no more room in Remus' warped body for who he really was. /p  
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p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; background-color: #ededed;" "Who remembers what we practiced yesterday? Potter?" James dropped his wand and quickly lifted his gaze to Mcgonagall after hearing his name. He faced her severe gaze head on and smiled knowingly, even though he had no idea what the question was in the first place. /p  
p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; background-color: #ededed;" "Um," he began./p  
p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; background-color: #ededed;" "Avifors" Remus whispered, moving his mouth as little as possible. /p  
p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; background-color: #ededed;" "Avifors! To change to target into a flock of birds!" James finished happily, grinning up at Mcgonagall./p  
p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; background-color: #ededed;" "Thank you, span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Lupin/span." Mcgonagall said tightly, tilting her head to where Remus was sitting. James threw his arms up and made a face of mock offense. Remus gave a small embarrassed smile and looked back down at his notes. When Mcgonagall turned her attention back to the rest of the class, Remus leaned over to smile at James. Sirius and James were both laughing and they gave Remus a discreet thumbs up. Remus stifled a laugh and then listened to the rest of the lecture. /p  
p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; background-color: #ededed;" At the end of class, Remus followed his friends to the door but just as he was about to leave, Mcgonagall called,/p  
p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; background-color: #ededed;" "Remus, if I could keep you for a moment." Remus' friends hesitated by the door to wait for him, but Remus urged them to leave,/p  
p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; background-color: #ededed;" "Go on, I'll catch up," he whispered. Sirius gave him a concerned look, but slowly receded into the hallway. Remus walked over to stand next to Mcgonagall's desk. Mcgonagall looked up at Remus skeptically with an expression of both distaste and affection that only she could make./p  
p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; background-color: #ededed;" "Lupin, have I not made it clear that you are fully allowed to take a day off?" Remus opened his mouth to respond but Mcgonagall held up a hand and kept speaking, " You can barely stay awake and rest would do you a great deal of good. I assure you that Potter will survive the day without you answering questions for him. " She paused, her eyes betraying a sliver of sympathy, "I know that you must in pain." /p  
p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; background-color: #ededed;" "Proffesor," Remus began, trying to sound firm, "I'm fine, really. I just want things to be normal as soon as possible." She looked at him with disbelief./p  
p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; background-color: #ededed;" "Its, its really not that bad" he said, but from the tone of his voice, it was evident that even he didn't believe what he was saying in the slightest. Mcgonagall, knowing that she would not convince him or sway his opinions in any way, sighed and said/p  
p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; background-color: #ededed;" "Very well, Lupin. You may go." Remus nodded at her, mustering up a weak smile as he walked out of the room. No matter what anyone said, Remus knew that he would never stay in the hospital wing longer than absolutely necessary. If he just lied there, alone, with nothing to do and no one to distract him, it would be too easy for his thoughts to drift back to his transformation and that was something he just couldn't handle. Falling asleep in class, limping through the hallways, wincing when people bump into his bruised muscles; these things, he could deal with. Being alone with his thoughts and memories though, was agony. He didn't need rest, he needed distraction. Most of all though, he needed his friends and the more time he spent away, the more suspicious they would be and eventually they would want answers. Answers that Remus would never be able to give because if Remus knew anything, it was that if they ever knew about him, they would leave, and he would be more broken than ever before. /p 


	4. Chapter 4

Almost everyone had gone to bed, leaving the Gryffindor common room empty except for Remus who sat in one of the large, ornate armchairs facing the crackling fire, Sirius who was sprawled on the couch behind him, reading the daily prophet, and James and Peter who sat on the floor opposite each other, engrossed in a game of wizards chess. Remus was in the middle of responding to a letter that he had received from his parents during dinner earlier that day. He didn't know what to say to them, or why they always had to ask the same questions. Remus had enough worries, he didn't need to add theirs to the pile. But, he knew he had to respond politely and above all, normally. Otherwise, Remus shuddered to think what they might do. Was it beyond them to show up at the foot of his bed one morning and haul him away forever, no questions asked? Sadly, he wasn't sure. A frustrated groan from James pulled Remus out of his thoughts. Remus leaned around the back of the armchair to see James fumbling to find a move that wouldn't result in Peter's victory. He couldn't find one. _Relax, _said a voice in Remus' head,_ they can wait a day or two, you're just being paranoid. _

_"_After Peter wins, it's my turn to beat you." Remus said, smirking at James

"Ah, I haven't lost yet" James replied, rubbing his hands together. Peter looked up at him with quiet skepticism as sirius chuckled and folded the paper on his lap to watch the imminent defeat.

"You can't just sit there all night, make a move!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Alright, alright calm down! Fine, Knight to E4," James huffed. Remus and Sirius both laughed, shaking their heads at James, who was yet to realize his mistake. James looked confusedly at Sirius and Remus, receiving no help. He then shifted his now concerned gaze to Peter who just smiled pleasantly at him and said,

"Checkmate." James, for all his strengths was just horrendous at wizards chess. In fact, he was yet to win a game. Of course, he did claim that he had beaten Frank Longbottom when, conveniently, no one else was around. This was still hotly disputed, but no one really believed him, except Peter who despite having a front row seat to many displays of James' less than pitiful wizards chess skills, still trusted James' every word.

James hung his head in defeat as Peter, without gloating, except for the proud smile he flashed Remus as he passed by, went to go sit in one of the other armchairs. Remus plopped down across from James and began resetting the board to play another game.

"I think you might really have a chance this time." Remus said, glancing up at his friend

"Really?" James said defeatedly

"Not at all." Remus responded smugly, raising his eyebrows at James.

"I'll let you have first move." Remus offered. James narrowed his eyes at his opponent but began resetting his pieces.

Sirius sat up on the couch, lazily brushing off numerous chocolate frog wrappers on to the floor. He stretched his arms above his head and yawned before pulling himself to his feet. He sauntered over to the fireplace and began stoking the dying flames. He was bored. James and Remus played chess so slowly, with so much thinking in between each move that when they played, the combat between the pieces was so few and far between, that watching them play hardly entertained him. He was stretching his neck when he noticed an envelope addressed to Remus, sticking out from under a stack of papers on the chair Remus had previously been sitting in. Sirius knew hardly anything about Remus' family so this piqued his interest. He grabbed the letter and saw that it was from Remus' mother. He opened his mouth to loudly tease Remus for getting a letter from his mummy, when he accidentally read the first line.

"Remus, Professor McGonagall's monthly letter arrived and I have to say it is a bit concerning." _Letters from McGonagall? _Sirius thought. Sirius knew it was wrong to continue reading but he hardly knew anything about Remus' life outside of Hogwarts and he couldn't fathom why McGonagall would write monthly letters. His curiosity frequently overshadowed his moral judgement so he quickly skimmed the next few lines.

"She said that you are getting louder and louder and that various students have even reported hearing strange noises during your _problem._ This is not acceptable. Think about the trouble this could cause me and your father if your _problem _became public. Our reputations would be absolutely ruined." At this point in the letter, Sirius was absolutely lost as to what they were talking about and shocked by the secrecy and strangeness of it all. He did know though, that he had to stop reading. He put the letter back where he found it and looked over at Remus in a new light. It occurred to Sirius that perhaps, he wasn't the only one who preferred Hogwarts over his home and his friends over his family. After reading that letter, he was pretty sure that Remus was right there with him. He was also sure that Remus was hiding something and even though he knew it was probably wrong, he couldn't resist. He decided right there, that he was going to figure out what exactly Remus' _problem _was.


End file.
